


Ending the loneliness

by ZenHeyerdall



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, But they try, I really suck at summaries, M/M, Teacher John, Teacher Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The ArchivistNavigation and Actions, georgie ships its, martin crushing at first sight, mentions of bullying, the magnus institute is an actual institute, these two have the social skill of a rock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27547666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZenHeyerdall/pseuds/ZenHeyerdall
Summary: Sometimes life is weird and difficult but sometimes life sends you to somebody when you don't expect it. And sometimes it only takes one favour to a friend.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Ending the loneliness

He hated afternoons like that, rainy, with few customers and long.

Usually the rain didn't bother him, he actually loved it, especially when he was at home, reading a book, with a cup of hot tea on the table next to him but he wasn't at home if not at work and the rain wasn't going to attract a lot of customers so ended up sitting behind the counter counting the seconds until he could close and go home.

At least he has books to entertain himself with, he doesn't expect Peter to be bothered by him doing it, after all to sell them he has to know what they are about and if they are really good.

It's the great thing about his work, that at least he can read all he wants.

He was currently reading a book on poetry, seeking inspiration for his own. As soon as he had seen that it was going to be a long and boring afternoon, he had decided to look for a book of poetry that he hadn't read and take out his notebook to see if he could finish the poetry that he had been trying to finish for weeks but that eluded him how to do it.

He knew it was stupid, that his poetry was probably not worth it but he liked it, it had always been a way of expressing what he felt. The loneliness, the loss of his father (which he wasn't even able to remember), his mother's illness and her death a couple of months ago, having had to leave his studies and his dreams to take care of her and find a job as soon as possible.

He was lucky to have found that position in Mr. Lukas's bookstore and that this wasn't the kind of boss who was perpetually looking out on his business, as far as he knew he came from a wealthy family and had other businesses besides that, so he was a busy man. Which didn't matter to him either, Martin had always been alone and led a lonely life, he had no friends or even a partner, the people he talked to the most were the clients he recommended books to, so an elusive and busy boss to whom he saw once a month it wasn't so strange and uncomfortable.

Martin was trying to do that, to finish his poetry when he was startled when he heard the bell that alerted him that someone had entered the bookshop.

Immediately, he closed the poetry book and put the notebook in one of the drawers on the counter to focus all his attention on his client. But this one had gone, after leaving his umbrella in the umbrella stand that Martin had left next to the door as soon as it started to rain in case a client arrived, to a specific and small section of the bookstore, the one that dealt with occultism, esotericism and parapsychology, which hardly anyone took seriously and to which almost nobody came to buy something, It contained a little bit of everything about that world from urban legends to books that talked about how to throw tarot cards.

Honestly, Martin didn't used to read much on that topic and he knew that he was't going to help him that much.

But it seemed that his client, a short man with long black hair with white streaks (Martin wondered if he was very precocious gray hair or if he had dyed it), who dressed as if he was a teacher and as he wasn't able to see his face to judge his age, he supposed that he could be perfectly, it wouldn't be the first to ask for a book specialized in the subject they taught.

Martin was torn between letting it be or coming to help him in his search, in the end won the second option and shyly approached his new client.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

The man startled, apparently so focused was on his search that he hadn't realized that he was obviously not alone in the place. Martin felt his brain shut down for a moment, that he suffered what some called "a blue screen" as soon as he saw the man. That was bad, Martin didn't go through life staring like an idiot at a person he considered frankly attractive, he was sure but it was happening, right now.

"Do I have something on my face?" the other man's voice asked.

Martin in those moments wanted to die.

"Uh ... no!" he ended up saying while praying that the other didn't realize that he was red.

"You work here?" he asked him again.

"Yes!" it encouraged him to be able to change the subject "That's why I was asking you if you needed help, I don't usually see many people looking for books in this section"

"Okay ... I'm doing ... some research for a friend" he explained.

"About what?" I ask. If he knew what he were looking for, he could help him find it faster.

"She has a podcast and would like to do a special about abandoned towns and I know there are books on that matter," he explained.

"Yeah ..." the truth, Martin hadn't the slightest idea "I'm not entirely sure that we have a book of that style, it sounds like something one would search on the Internet"

"You can find anything on the Internet, it's not very reliable," he explained.

"That's true" he admitted "I can help you find it if we have something"

"I would like that, yes" he admitted.

"Good" is not that they had a very large section but at least it would feel like he was doing something "I'm Martin by the way, Martin Blackwood"

"Jonathan Sims" the man introduced himself, turning his attention to the shelves.

"Nice to meet you, Jon" he said with a smile "Hum ... it's the first time I've seen you around here" he added in an attempt to meet that man because Martin was not going to crush with a stranger or with a potential client.

"That's right" he confirmed "I have recently moved due to my new job"

"Oh that's good, I think?" he wasn't sure but figured it at least sounded more exciting than his life "are you ... a teacher?"

Jon turned and looked at him with narrowed eyes, Martin knew he had somehow got it right.

“You dress like one..I mean! You look like one ”he explained.

"I'm a history teacher" he confirmed.

"At high school?" he asked again and at Jon's confirmation, he stared at him "Why are you doing that to yourself?"

"It's a good position," he explained with a shrug. "Not everyone enters the Magnus Institute."

Martin knew that institute, it was the type of private school where the best of the best went and not only because you were born into a good family, they had an impressive scholarship program that had been his envy and dream when he was much younger and innocent, before things actually got complicated for him. As a child he had thought that studying there would make you king of the world. So it was pretty impressive that Jon got a job there.

"Well then ... congratulations" observed Martin in a cheerful tone.

"It's just a high school, teenagers are teenagers, even in private schools" observed Jon "they're still insufferable and wanting to believe that they are more right than you"

Martin didn't know what to comment , he was still young when he had to stop studying very reluctantly to go to work and take care of his mother, so his memories of highschool so many years later were quite diffuse but he did remember that some of his classmates enjoyed messing with him by saying things like that his father had left home because he couldn't stand a crazy wife and a son as useless as him, they also messed with his weight and more, they always had more unpleasant things to say to them . That, perhaps, was the part that he missed the least from that time.

To the surprise of Martin himself, they ended up finding a small book that spoke of the history of several abandoned villages after various events related to wars or the black death. Jon admitted not knowing if that was what Georgie, his friend, was looking for but took it anyway because he decided she had to start somewhere.

"I think that's what she needs," Jon admitted. Although neither of them really knew but for something she had to start investigating, right? "Thank you, by the way"

"Oh, it's nothing," Martin was quick to say. Sure it wasn't, it was part of his job, but then why did he feel different when Jon thanked him?

After that, there was no reason for that man to stay in the bookstore, so after paying for the book Martin then said goodbye to Jon with the certainty that the probability that they would see each other again was minimal, but he found himself wishing that he would come back which was strupid because they hadn't spent so much time together to like him thatmuch but he had wanted see him again. It was ridiculous, just ridiculous, was he so in need of someone to help him get out of the loneliness that was his existence that he crushed with the first interesting man who appeared in his life?

But he doubted their paths would cross.

Or so he thought.

* * *

Jonathan Sims didn't really like working at the Magnus Institute, they weren't the students themselves, it was as he had told Martin a few days ago, teenagers were teenagers and teenagers with money and the world at their feet were no better that those who had scholarships to study, if not first, as soon as he arrived he had found that the woman who had her position before retiring (or he imagined that this had been because he really didn't know the reason why she had left the job), had done it by leaving the office as if a tsunami had passed by, how messy it was and it had taken him two whole days to get it more or less organized. But the worst thing was that he didn't feel completely comfortable there and he wasn't able to know why, was it his strangely accommodating boss? His companions who seemed to want to know his whole life? He didn't know but Jon didn't feel comfortable there, however, he felt like he couldn't get out of that place.

So getting used to his new job, his new workmates, and the students had kept him busy the days after he bought the book, but Georgie, five days after that, had sent him a message the day before to say that she would go to pick up the book at his office since she needed to contrast information that she had found with said book.

When she arrived, Jon was finishing correcting some essays he had asked them to do over the weekend when he noticed knuckles knock on his office door and then it opened.

"Hi stranger" greeted Georgie "It's good to see you're alive"

"Georgie ..."

"Don't 'Georgie' me, Jon" she said softly "I haven't seen you since I helped you with the move"

"Well ... you talked to me to ask me if I could find you a book that would be useful to you," he reminded her.

"Which I need for yesterday," she informed him.

"It's here, don't need to bite me," he replied, giving her the book, which he had kept in his backpack when she had told him that she was going to get it.

"Thank you, Jon, this is going to help a lot" she admitted "how much do I owe you?"

"Nothing, don't worry"

"C'mon Jon, don't be like that"

"Don't be what? It's a gift, I can give a friend a gift if I want ”he observed, rolling his eyes.

"Then I owe you a dinner," she told him.

"As you wish but don't take me to a Hungarian restaurant" Jon didn't see the point in arguing with her either.

"Oh don't worry about that, I went to dinner with a guy I met on a dating app," she explained.

"And did it go well?"

"Gods no but at least I got dinner where I wanted, so it's a win for me" she observed "Come on Jon, pick up and let's go to dinner"

"I still have to finish correcting ..."

"Come on!"

In the end, Georgie ended up dragging him to a Japanese restaurant that she used to go to with her girlfriend, Melanie. Jon had to admit that it was a nice place and that the food was very good, he understood why his friend liked to go there but it seemed to him, due to the intimacy of the decoration, that it was more of a place to which, indeed, you would take more your partner not your ex.

"So ... how are you doing in London? “she asked him trying to make conversation during dinner.

"Great?" Jon didn't know what to answer to that, it wasn't going badly but he hadn't been there long enough to assure that it was going great "I mean, it's only been three months ... I barely had time to get used to it, between work and move..."

"So you don't know anyone other than your co-workers, Melanie or me," she observed.

"I met someone the other day when I went to get your book," he observed by way of defense. That caught the interest of Georgie, who looked into his eyes to see if he was lying "his name is Martin, he works in the bookstore and he helped me a lot, maybe you know him"

"No, I'm sorry, that bookstore is closer to your place than mine's, that's why I asked you" he explained "so ... Martin ... are you just going to tell me that?"

"I mean, he works at that bookshop, he was nice but I don't know if it's because it's like that with everyone or because I was his client," he explained. Nor is it that they had talked much.

"And ...?" Georgie seemed to want to know more.

"And that's all"

"Boooringgg, that's all you have to say? You like him? "

"Georgie, I just met him, I've only talked to him ONCE" he reminded her.

"But it made a good impression on you" she observed "Jon, I know you, probably better than you know yourself and I know you don't like anyone initially, I mean, it took you two months to start talking to me and we sat together at class , during all that time I thought you hated me "

It was complicated, Jon wasn't good at interacting with anyone, he had never had friends beyond Georgie and they had been years, after their breakup, without speaking. But there was something about Martin that made him feel good, he felt he could be trusted and it was ridiculous for him to have sympathized so much with a stranger but he had.

"People are not my ... thing ... I'm trying that's for sure, being a teacher and dealing with kids help," he admitted.

“I would honestly prefer you to talk to more people than hormonal teenagers, Jon” she joked “I'm just saying, no preassure, you could come back to Martin's and ... I don't know ... buy a book and talk with him a bit ... maybe some tea or coffee? You don't have to do it ... but I think it would be good for you, to have more friends besides me or Melanie ”

"Melanie is not my friend, believe me she would love to gouge my eyes out if it weren't for the fact that I'm your friend" he reminded her.

“You know that was a joke, don't you? “Georgie and Jon knew it, it wasn't a joke.

"It was?" he replied, arching one eyebrow in disbelief at the other's assertion.

"Nevermind" Georgie sighed. She knew that the relationship between Melanie and Jon was strained but she hoped that eventually, in the end, they would get along because it seemed to her that they were somewhat similar. Maybe that's why they got along badly, nobody liked to see themselves reflected in another person.

The conversation then began to turn into the podcast that Georgie was going to broadcast and others that she planned to broadcast over time and whether he was going to be able to help her with any information or not, depending on what he decided.

But eventually each one returned home.

* * *

Martin Blackwood was having a good Saturday, he had a busy and crowded morning and it had passed so quickly that he hadn't realized he was approaching lunchtime until his guts roared. When he realized what time it was, he began to close the bookstore during his lunch hour and go to eat something.

But before he finished that task, he heard someone enter.

"Sorry, I'm closing in a few minutes until the afternoon ... oh ... Jon!" Martin was surprised to see that the person who had entered was that teacher who weeks ago had bought that book of cursed towns. He thought he was never going to see him again because that was life, those things happened "it's good to see you!"

"Yeah ... I think I'm coming at a bad time, I can come back later if you want" commented Jon.

"No, it's okay, I haven't closed yet" he observed.

"Ah well ... I wasn't coming to buy a book if not to see you" he told him.

Jon was really surprised by how the words had come out of his mouth, it had been less stupid than he expected since he had thought that it was best to stop beating around the bush and say what the intentions of his visit were. Now he was afraid that Martin would tell him to leave him alone, that he wasn't interested in him. But then he saw the surprise on the other's face and some blush on his cheeks and he was surprised, it wasn't the reaction he expected but the one he would have wanted.

"Me?" Martin, in fact, sounded ridiculously incredulous "Really? Me ? Did I hear correctly? "

"Yeah " Jon sounded a bit irritated at the time but it was because, for the most part, he didn't like repeating himself.

"Is not a joke?"

"I don't usually have the habit of laughing at people, Martin," he assured him, gathering all his patience.

"And people don't usually want ... to see me," he admitted. Martin had been too busy taking care of his mother to have any friendship or socializing and now that he was alone, he was beginning to regain that part of his life very slowly but it was...hard.

"Well ... I'm here, I mean ... it's your time to eat and I haven't eaten yet ... I was going to tell you to eat something but I don't really know the area much and I don't know what restaurants there are" he observed. Damm, he should have thought that better, he should have informed himself about it before or maybe Martin didn't want to, one thing was a chat and another to eat, or maybe he had already brought his own food, there were many variables that he had not taken into account " You can say no, it would be okay "

Jon thought that the fact that Martin rejected him would be so horrible that he would end up fleeing the place and never coming back out of sheer embarrassment. But it was okay, he had every right to say no. But again he felt ridiculous about all that, he was practically a stranger so it should not affect him so much that he rejected him or did not want to know anything about him. He was used to people not liking him, it shouldn't affect him so much, to terrify him so much.

For his part, Martin, oblivious to the existential crisis within Jon, was processing all of this. He has never been the most popular person in the world but since he was busy with his mother he didn't care and the friends he had once had were classmates with whom he had grown up and played during his school years until he grew up until life happened. But he had never seen anyone approach him directly and said "Hey, I want to meet you", those things didn't happen to him.

"Ah ... well ... yeah ... yeah!" Martin at first felt that the words weren't coming out but in the end, he was able to say it and accept it. Jon's face lit up at his answer and he couldn't help but be amazed at how beautiful he looked like that, he looked like even another person "come on, I know a place and it's not far"

And it wasn't, the place was small and at that time it was full so they both to the take away option and they ended up settling on a bench in a nearby park, sitting down to watch the families having a picnic and their children running around the place. while playing.

"So ... how's work going lately? Better with the kids? " Martin asked him.

Well, the conversation had to start somehow.

"I wish" commented Jon with a disdainful laugh "I had to punish a couple two days ago for catching them smoking in the bathrooms"

"I'm glad to know that even in private schools teenagers keep doing things like that," he joked.

"They are worse," said Jon. Maybe it was that he had a different mentality but he didn't remember having been that way at his age, of course his grandmother would have killed him if he had behaved that way "and how are you doing?"

"Oh quite well, there are days calmer than others" he explained "Mr. Lukas came to see me this Tuesday and commented that he was happy with my work"

"Lukas? As in the Lukas family? " he asked him.

"I guess, I know that he's a busy man and that he comes from a wealthy family" replied Martin "do you know him?"

"From hearsay, the Lukas family is one of the families that sponsors the Magnus Institute," he explained, "I haven't seen him yet but I think he's on the board of directors."

"Really? Wow, small world ... ”observed Martin. How likely was it that his boss and Jon's boss met?

"But I don't really want to talk about work ..." Jon admitted. I didn't really want to think about Elias or the Institute.

"Oh, of course!" he exclaimed but Martin didn't know what to say.

"What you were doing the other day?" asked the other.

"What do you mean?" he asked him.

"When I walked into the bookstore the other day you seemed to be doing something," observed Jon, "writing? Studying? "

"Oh, that" Martin was surprised that Jon had realized this, he thought he had been quick to hide what he was doing "I was writing ... poetry"

"Poetry?"

"Yeah, I know ... it's silly but I like it" he explained. Martin felt a bit ridiculous when talking about his love of poetry, he knew it wasn't exactly the most entertaining and popular thing in the world "I'm not very good but I like it ... it's a way of expressing myself"

“I don't think it's silly” he observed “I usually record stories, you know? On one of these tape recorders "

"Yours?"

"I wish but I don't have that much imagination" Jon let out an authentic laugh that made Martin stay in awe "but I admire that you do, although I admit that I don't know how to appreciate poetry, I've never been good at it"

"As I said ... I'm not that good" he wasn't going to flatter himself when he knew it wasn't "I started writing when I had to leave high school to take care of my mother, it helped me vent about my feelings and has become on my escape route ”he hadn't intended for Jon to find out, at least not so soon, that unlike him, he didn't even have the most basic studies while Jon had surely gone to college.

"I'm sorry that happened to you" Jon didn't sound like he was judging him, it didn't seem like he was saying it for saying either, because it was the right thing to do, it seemed like he felt really bad for him "I hope your mother is at least now in better health"

"She died a few months ago" he told him softly. Martin saw Jon's face change color and he put his food aside "hey, it's okay, you didn't know!" It wasn't like he had a sign hanging over him that said his mother had recently died, he didn't have to know.

"The logical thing would be to tell you that I'm sorry but I think you must be sick of hearing that," Jon admitted. At least he at the time, when his mother had died, he had gotten tired of hearing the condolences of people he didn't even know with that pity in their eyes and in their voice "at least I felt that way when mine died, it ends up being exhausting listening to people who don't really care about you saying that because it's the right thing to do. For what is worth, I'm sorry, I should be more careful with my words ”

"Yeah ..." Martin had to admit it, he was glad that Jon hadn't said that because he didn't know his mother and he didn't know him well enough to really mean it, if he had said it, as he had already said, it would be because it was the right thing to do "and I guess, I'm sorry about yours ... even if you think it sounds absurd to say so"

"It's okay, I was eight when she passed away" he said to the other. Jon barely remembered his mother, much less his father, who he remembered best was his grandmother, that's for sure "it was long ago"

"Jesus Christ, eight?" Martin felt really sorry for Jon all of a sudden, he had lost his mother when he was very young. "Holy shit, I can't even imagine ..." it had been hard for him and he was already a man, he couldn't imagine how it had been for him. a little boy.

"It was ... fine ... my grandma took care of me since my day had passed away when I was even younger," he said. No, of course it hadn't been good at the time but he didn't want to worry Martin more about something that happened so long ago and that he hardly thought about anymore.

“Your dad too? Jesus fucking christ ... Jon ”Martin felt really bad for that child who would have been him and he himself thought that his youth had been complicated. He had to say something to make Jon feel better, but what? " My dad left us when I was a child, I was eight too, my mom didn't take it ... very well ”great, because that would surely help him feel better“ Christ, our childhoods were awful, didn't they? "

"Cheers to that" Jon didn't seem sad, nor annoyed, he seemed like always and Martin didn't know what to think about it because it seemed that this was a difficult person to read "God ... it really seems that we both had a shitty childhood"

"Yeah ..." Martin suddenly felt that the conversation had fallen and he didn't know how to take it back to liven things up. He didn't want it to end that way, not that it was a date but he didn't want it to be bad "but I think we haven't gone so bad" he added trying to cheer him up with a joke.

"Of course" murmured the other man "Martin ... I don't think less of you, I'm not a prick how he thinks he's better because he went to college, I think you did what you had to do and you know , it's never too late if you still want to study but that's your call ”

"Thank you" he had to admit that he was glad he didn't judge him or look at him over his shoulder. It hadn't been pleasant not having studies when he was looking for work and nobody hired him for that, in the end he had obtained his job by lying a little, the truth and so far, he had done well. Then he noticed something vibrating in his pocket and when he took out his phone he saw that it was the alarm on it, which warned him that his mealtime was about to end "I should go ... I mean, I gave to get back to work, but you can come if you like! "

"I would love to " Jon admitted "but I don't want to bother you ... I don't want to abuse your time and more while you're working ..."

"Oh ,,, right ..." Martin tried not to sound disappointed, everything had gone more or less well and he regretted having to say goodbye to Jon until ... who knows when.

"But ... maybe ... another day?" Jon didn't want to assume anything. He had made too many mistakes and he still felt like shit about bringing Martin's mum into the conversation, he fucked it a little bit but ... maybe there was a small change that he could do it better next time ... if there was one. He wanted to..but it wasn't all on him.

"Yeah!" the enthusiasm in the other's voice scared them both "You can have my number and we can still talk and see what day we can..I don't know...do something?"

"I would like that" admitted Jon.

After exchanging phone numbers, the two walked back to the bookstore where Martin worked and said goodbye with the promise to see each other again when it was good for both of them.

They were both happy with how everything had gone, neither of them were the most sociable people in the world, for different reasons, but somehow they had managed to make that impromptu outing (because neither of them was going to say that this was a date although Jon knew Georgie would tell him that yes, it was) it went pretty well.

And they both had the same feeling.

That maybe there was something there that was worth pursuing, whatever it was.

**Author's Note:**

> Soo, it took me one month to listen all the episode of TMA and after all of that I had the urge to write something about Jon and Martin, they have become my comfort ship and I really wish them all the best and...if not...we still have fanfiction.
> 
> I don't know if I'm going to write more about this AU, maybe I will and this will end up being a series, which I've never done tbh.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and since I'm not a native english speaker there will be some mistakes, so I'm sorry about that !
> 
> And if you like it and wanna see more you can leave a comment or kudos, all is ver welcome!


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